Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics & Science: Library Resources

Gathering Background Information

Getting Started: Research Overview

library research strategies

Off Campus?

Only Find a Citation?

Encyclopedia Americana or Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Full-text online.
AccessScience McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
Science Online: encyclopedias and news on science topics

More specialized encyclopedias may come in handy depending on your project.

Search one or more of the sources linked above and indicate one resource that would be useful for your project.

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How will this source be useful?

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Finding Books

Search either the online catalog or WorldCat to find at least one book that you would like to investigate for your project.

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Is the book electronic or print?

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Does WPI own it? If it is print, what is its call number?

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Finding Articles: Databases and Electronic Resources

Click the FullTextFinder link within the database, which will lead you to our link resolver, which helps you to connect to full text, if we subscribe, or other access options.

Notice Journal Search on left of library navigation menu

You can also try to search for journals by title using our Library Journal Search.

Below are a few WPI library paid subscription databases (except PubMed, which is a free database, but may link you to paid content provided by the WPI library). Even when you search Google Scholar, you will find links that will lead to library resources.

Search at least one of the above databases to find scholarly articles that might help complete your project.

Which database(s) did you try?

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What search terms/techniques worked for you?

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Provide all the citation information for the article you found (auther, journal, title, date, volume, pages, etc.:

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Patent Searching

U.S. Patents: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) - Patent Search

Search and review others patents to understand:

technical specifications/innovations
product designs
competitive differences/advantages
players (competitors; inventors)

More Patent Searching Tools...

Trouble viewing patent images? Download Alterniff viewer or type patent number into pat2pdf.org site to get a PDF version.

Use one of the above patent searching tools to find at least one patent that would be useful for your project.

Patent Number and Title:

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Date of Patent:

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Assignee:

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Questions?

Stop by the reference desk or set up a research consultation.

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Last modified: Sep 11, 2009, 15:40 EDT